Wednesday, January 14, 2026
Today’s new Travalanche posts for January 14, 2026 are about the Raymond Griffith’s Hands Up (100 years old this year), Faye Dunaway, and Richard Outcault (The Yellow Kid and Buster Brow…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:06PMReleased 100 years ago today! Raymond Griffith in Hands Up! (1926). And I caught it in the nick of time. I assumed I had already done a post on this terrific comedy, but in fact I had not, t…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:48PMThis dashing dude is Richard F. Outcault (1863-1928), once hailed by many as the inventor of the newspaper comic strip. Many hands went into the evolution of this unique art form however; it…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:32AMTuesday, January 13, 2026
Today’s new Travalanche post for January 13, 2026 is about Tin Pan Alley songwriter James V. Monaco. Other earlier Travalanche posts for January 13 (in no particular order) include ones on…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:42PMJanuary 13 was the birthday of Tin Pan Alley composer James V. Monaco (1885-1945). Monaco was an Italian immigrant who moved to the U.S. with his family when he was six years old. He was rai…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:12AMMonday, January 12, 2026
By a certain logic, this piece should begin with the woman at the bottom of this post (and the girl seated center in the photo above). It’s the customary way, and without her, the other tw…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:02PMToday’s new Travalanche posts for January 12, 2026 are about silent screen star Milton Sills, and the Paul McCartney’s in-laws The Eastman Family. Other earlier Travalanche posts for Jan…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:02PM“…modern girls find fault with almost everybody, unless a man is a Milton Sills, he doesn’t stand a chance….” — 1928 vaudeville lyric When one looks down a list of his credits, o…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:36AMSunday, January 11, 2026
In the interest of thoroughness, and because I have mentioned THIS “Alexander Hamilton” on Travalanche as often as the man himself and the musical based on his life. This one falls almos…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:12PMToday’s new Travalanche posts for January 11, 2026 are about Alexander Hamilton and the first bio-pic about same. Other earlier Travalanche posts for January 11 (in no particular order) in…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:12PMAlexander Hamilton celebrated his birthday on January 11, though historians are uncertain whether the year was 1755 or 1757. No one is confused about when he died, however. The fatal duel wi…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:54AMSaturday, January 10, 2026
Weekends in January and February are often set aside in western mountain resort communities as Avalanche Awareness Days. We mark this year’s with an appreciation of the 1978 disaster film …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:24PMToday’s new Travalanche posts for January 10, 2026 are about Thomas Paine’s Common Sense and the 1978 disaster movie Avalanche. (I ask you — what other blog has that kinda reach?!) Oth…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:24PM250 years ago today (January 10, 1776): the publication of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. I’m planning a full biographical post on Paine which I’ll share about a month from now, but it s…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:48AMFriday, January 9, 2026
Today’s new Travalanche posts for January 9, 2026 are about Led Zeppelin, David Johansen and the New York Dolls, The Mad Show, and singer/actor Jimmy Boyd. Other earlier Travalanche posts …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:18PMAlthough it’s somewhat outside my wheelhouse, I’ve had a vague intention of doing something on Led Zeppelin for a while now. I’ve long been working on a long think-piece (possibly even…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:12PMWe lost David Johansen (b. 1950) nearly a year ago; today would have been his 76th birthday. 76 (or 75, the age at which he died) is young these days, yet Johansen was the last of the origin…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:42AM60 years ago today was opening night of the hit off-Broadway revue The Mad Show, which ran for about a year (1966-67), and then toured nationally through 1968. This charmed project featured …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:32AMJimmy Boyd (1939-2009) was first widely known as a child performer, but he had a good run. He managed to keep it going for about three decades. Boyd was from a musical family originating in …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:18AMThursday, January 8, 2026
Here in the U.S. Dame Shirley Bassey (b. 1937) is known strictly for singing three James Bond themes, especially Goldfinger (1964), her only bona fide hit song on this side of the Atlantic. …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:18PMToday’s new Travalanche posts for January 8, 2026 are about Shirley Bassey, and the new show about Feltman’s Hot Dogs. I also spruced up an older post in honor of the Soupy Sales Centenn…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:18PMWith the horrors of yesterday’s main news event (the murder of a widowed suburban mother by rogue ICE agents in Minneapolis) darkening my soul like a sulfuric cloud, I was grateful to catc…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:06AMThanks, Lauren Milberger, for the 11th hour intel about an important centennial anniversary! January 7, 1926 was the day on which George Burns and Gracie Allen officially tied the knot. They…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:02AMWednesday, January 7, 2026
Today’s new Travalanche post for January 7, 2026 is about the dance team of Harold and Lola. Other earlier Travalanche posts for January 7 (in no particular order) include ones on: Adolph …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:36PMI was made aware of the dance team of Harold and Lola due to their inclusion in the 1948 film Variety Time, which I wrote about here. “Harold” was Harold Liebmann (1895-1960), born of a …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:12AMTuesday, January 6, 2026
Today’s new Travalanche post for January 6, 2026 is about E.L. Doctorow and Ragtime. Other earlier Travalanche posts for January 6 (in no particular order) include ones on: Chaplin’s The…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:32PMI’ve wanted to do a dedicated post on E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime for a while now, mostly on account of his treatment of several real life characters I have researched and written about, and…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:24PMMonday, January 5, 2026
Today’s new Travalanche post for January 5, 2026 is about the death of Beatles’ friend and confidant Mal Evans. Other earlier Travalanche posts for January 5 (in no particular order) inc…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:18PMYou can always gauge the extent of someone’s Beatles’ fandom by how deeply they’ve gone into their biographies, with the side effect of their eventually knowing about as much about the…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:02AMSunday, January 4, 2026
Today’s new Travalanche posts for January 4, 2026 are about Hypnotism in Show Business; and The Story of the Brothers Grimm. Other earlier Travalanche posts for January 4 (in no particular…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:02AMEver since the advent of the World Wide Web I have sought to track down the edition of Grimm’s Fairy Tales I owned as a small child, all in vain. My own copy eventually fell apart and had …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:54AM 
